We got back to camp around sunset and Dave and I started our gourmet cooking again. This time Dave and I grilled steaks that night with sautéed mushrooms, garlic, etc. What a meal!!
This ended up being a really good day. I didn't damage the bike, I was challenged but made it through a tight spot, and really had some great views. Ending the day with a great meal and another time around the fire. What a great way to end the day.
Thursday - March 5, 2015
Today's ride would be to the world famous racetrack playa. For decades people have tried to figure out the mystery of the "moving rocks" - they have a path showing what appears to be where they moved. In August 2014 it was finally solved. Briefly, after a rain covers the playa in a thin coating of water, it freezes. Winds are common in the small valley and when the ice begins to be blown by the wind, it can catch on the rocks and act as a sail, moving the rocks too. Today we'd come to visit and see for ourselves.
We head north to the Ubehebe Crater, 46 miles from camp, to get there. The turn off for Scotty's Castle is just six miles earlier and only three miles out of our way so we decided to pop over since we were in the neighborhood. Built in the 1920's by Albert Mussey Johnson, it nevertheless has the name Scotty's Castle after Walter Scott, cowboy and gold prospector. It's not actually a castle, but it is a very interesting Spanish mission-styled mansion. There's a couple of tours that cost $10 or so, but we were satisfied just to walk around it and take pictures. It's interesting and worth a visit.
Dave and I had an idea we might head to the Eureka Dunes at the north end of the park after visiting the racetrack, so we stashed a gallon of gas for Dave on the way to the Ubehebe Crater and the road to the Racetrack. The dirt road to the racetrack was 25 miles of sometimes good condition where we could fly along at about 50mph. But the last 3 or 4 miles of it was nasty washboard. Really. The worst washboard of the roads we took that week. Not hard, but a super-annoying-bone-jarring ride. Believe it or not, we passed a new Dodge Challenger coming the other way.
Who would take such a nice car out on a road like that?!?
A little over 19 miles in is Teakettle Junction, which of course means I have to stop and take pictures. The junction is where the road to Hidden Valley splits off from the Racetrack road. As you can see, the sign is covered in teakettles from all over the world. Some nice person left candy in one and asked others to refill it from time to time. Pretty cool! I think it's pretty neat of the National Park Service that they let people continue to "decorate" the sign.
Tom Clark
I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Intellitect, living in Spokane, Washington. I also do a little development work on the side. And I love riding motorcycles all over the country with my friends.
